My 7 Christmases

Here is a re-cap of our busy Holiday Season. We enjoyed seeing everyone and celebrating! Maddie was a great age for Christmas this year. She understood opening the gifts and playing with her new toys. She was, of course, thoroughly spoiled by all!

We started off with an early celebration when Auntie "Auntnie" Dian and Katie were in town. Maddie scored some healthy food options and a new coat & backpack.

Little did Dian know that all that food would go great in the new kitchen from Grandma Connie! Maddie loves her new kitchen, and some day far into the future when she is a parent, she will understand Tony's love for her, and the 3 hours that it took to assemble the kitchen! She learned how to say "openthis" and she doesn't exactly like to wait.

This is on the 23rd at Mimi & Papa Ray's house. Maddie got a new baby doll and homemade pillow and blanket!

Here is the best of 6 different shots of Maddie and her second cousins on Tony's side. Ryan and Jen hosted a Fox family get-together on Christmas eve. It was a lot of fun and good food too!

This is my favorite picture of Maddie on Christmas Day. She is playing with her new train set from Justin and Sam, while simultaneously doing her hair with a new brush and accessory set. Christmas day was spent at home in jammies (as it should be). We were tired from a long drive home from Eugene on Christmas eve after church. It was just Tony, me, Maddie and Grammy. We started with stockings (Maddie's favorite item in her stocking was an Elmo toothbrush!). We then had breakfast and opened the rest of our gifts. Everyone but me took a noontime nap, and I went for a run. It was a gorgeous, sunny day (albeit crisp) and nobody was out on the roads in our neighborhood. This was my first run ever as an adult and kick-started my training for a 10K in April.

Maddie and Grammy

Papa Randy came over on the 27th with an awesome new dollhouse and a baby that can go in the bath with Maddie.

He also commissioned an artist friend of his to do a drawing of the three of us based on some photographs. It is a very neat piece of work!

On the 30th we went to Chuck and JoDee's for a celebration with the Willett/Killian family. It was fun a fun event, but we were sorry that Opa and Oma weren't able to make it. We tried a new tradition this year...a white elephant exchange. In a weird twist of gift stealing and swapping I ended up bringing home my own gift. Oh well, better luck next year!

In early January, Dian's daughter, Kelly drove up from California, so we met her in Roseburg and got to see Papa Ike, Grandma Linda, Aunt Shannon and Morgan as well. Unfortunately Tony wasn't able to take time off, so he joined the gift exchange with us virtually.

Papa Ike and Grandma Linda opening their monogrammed golf ball markers....a practical gift!

Pics of the week

These are my two favorite pictures from this week....

Here is Maddie with all her babies in the cradle made by her great-grandpa John. In order from L to R: Maddie (laying down), Shannie (in honor of Aunt Shannon), Mona (the neighbor's daughter), Abby (Sesame Street), Dada, and Beth (because she goes in the bath). Autzen the dog is on the chair. She carries these babies around all day long, feeds them milk, puts their clothes on and off, and puts them in and out of bed. She also sleeps with all of them every night.

This is a self-selected outfit. She wanted the leg warmers on the outside of the pants. Also note she is using two toothbrushes at the same time. She also drinks from two cups (with straws) at the same time. It grosses Tony out that she drinks her milk and water together.

Maddie is talking. A lot!! It would be way too much to post all of her words, because she repeating a lot and also stringing several words together. I don't know if this is common or not, but she uses "the" and "with" in a lot of her phrases. For example: "All done with the bed" means nap time is over. She is also counting. She can count to five. She also knows all of her basic colors. If you ask her what color something is she will say "the red" or "the blue." Her most often used phrase is "no way" which she says very emphatically, but not in a defiant tone...yet. She is also learning how to make choices. If I say do you want something to drink or not?, she will answer "not." Also if you tell her to ask somebody for something, she will look at them and say "ask." Maddie also likes to know what everyone is doing. For example Daddy is at the work, Mommy and Maddie are going to Jazzercise (which she can say and it comes out sooo cute!!) She checks up with people via video chatting on the computer and talking on the phone. She "cooks" a lot in her kitchen and also likes to help me with making dinner. She likes to draw, but would prefer a ball point pen to crayons. Just wait til she discovers markers!! She watches Sesame Street, and can name all the characters, but she only watches for a couple of minutes before she gets distracted by something else. She reads tons of books every day and we still make weekly trips to the library. Her favorites are about buses and trains or Elmo. She is slacking on her potty training a little bit, although she will stop what she is doing, look right at me, and say "pees" or poop after she has already done it. She has such a little personality, she loves to talk to people out in public. First she'll play it shy and coy, and then when they are paying attention to her she will turn on the charm with her big old smile! People comment all the time on how cute her pigtails are and how well behaved she is. I think it helps a lot that she communicates so well verbally, but if for some reason you are distracted from her or not quite understanding, she can get very upset. But the good news is that she is calmed down easily and reasoned with amazingly well considering she is not yet even 2.

Thanks for letting me indulge in my stream of consciousness brag session. I want to make sure her accomplishments are documented.

December in Review

As some of you have kindly noted, it has been a while since we have updated our family blog. Here are some highlights for the month of December. It doesn't include Christmas which will be its own post. Please feel free to leave comments to let us know you like reading our blog!

December brought two HUGE events in Maddie's development.

1) Maddie peed on the toilet for the first time ever on 12/6/09!!!!!! She has been pretty successful with peeing about once a day, but she has not gone #2 yet. She loves her rewards: using the toilet paper, and getting a smartie candy treat. We are asking her daily if she wants to use the potty, but not forcing the issue yet.

2) She began sleeping in a big girl bed on 12/14/09. She fell out twice, but otherwise she has done great and she goes down without a fight. No more crib tent. She sleeps with all 6 of her baby dolls and she gets up in the morning, comes down the hallway to our room and snuggles with us for a few seconds before she is rearing to start the day!

The first week of December was the Civil War. Maddie stayed at Mimi and Papa Ray's while we enjoyed the Ducks' sweet victory!

Maddie loves taking a bath at Mimi's house.

We enjoyed some shopping on our way down to Eugene and got a nice family pic at woodburn outlet mall
Maddie was not too happy about sitting on Santa's lap

We also waited over 20 minutes to sit on Clifford's lap and she didn't like that either.

Our friends Becca and Jack came from Bend to visit us. We decorated gingerbread men. Maddie's first holiday cookie ever!
She got good at the decorating...and the eating!! She has a little sweet tooth!

JSam came to visit us. That is how Maddie refers to them now...as one entity.

Tony and I got to go out to a holiday party...and we didn't get home until midnight!

Maddie had her first candy cane ever at the tree lot. She loved it and it made a mess of her gloves and her face!
Family pic at the L'Arche tree lot. Unfortunately we never found a time to help sell trees. Maybe next year if nap time has changed.

Maddie loved helping decorate the tree. She learned to say "tree" and "lights" and she would jump out of bed every morning and want the lights on. Our first ornament to go on the tree is always Peanut's star.

Tony took a couple of vacation days right before Christmas. One of the days we spent at the Children's museum. It was great for him to get to see Maddie in her element. I graciously allowed him to help her with the face painting exhibit!

On the 23rd we packed up and went to Eugene. We had a gift certificate for a free night at the downtown Hilton. We had a ridiculously HUGE room with an adjoining conference room. Again Mimi and Papa Ray watched Maddie and we enjoyed a night on the town.

Then our busy Christmas season began......stay tuned for more!!!